prices for Timber

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 142, 12 March 1938, Page 12

prices for Timber

Increase Considered Fair And Reasonable STATEMENT BY MINISTER A statement that recent increases in timber prices were considered by the Government Timber Price Committee to be fair and reasonable was made by the Minister of Industries and Commerce, Hon. D. G. Sullivan, in the course of a reply to an urgent question by Mr. A. G. Hultquist (Government, Bay of Plenty) in the House of Representatives yesterday. Reference was made by Mr. Hultquist to a published statement that following an increase of 10 per cent, in tlie wages of timber workers it bad been decided by rhe industry, after investigations by Government officials, to increase the price of timber by 10 per cent., and that in practice the increase on lines in demand would.be as much as 20 per cent. He asked if there was any foundation for the statement; whether the Minister was aware that when wages were reduced by general order in 1931 by 10 per cent., the prices of timber were not by any means reduced to the same extent; and whether he would take steps to see that the timber industry did not exploit the consuming public by an unwarranted increase in the price of timber on the ground that wages had been increased in the industry.

Mr. Sullivan said the published statement referred to by Mr. Hultquist was incorrect in that the net average increase in the price of building timbers was 5 per cent, overall, and not 10 per cent. On only one grade was the increase as great as 20 per cent., while on many lines no increase had been made at all. Subsequent to the 1931 general order reducing wages the prices of’all grades of building timbers were reduced and the overall reduction exceeded the 10 per cent, decrease in wages considerably. At the time of tiie general order virtually all millers were price-cutting. “The timber industry last year gave an undertaking to the Government that no increase would be made in the price of timber until the Government had an opportunity of examining the industry’s proposals and satisfying itself that the industry was not exploiting the public,” said Mr. Sullivan. “This procedure was adopted in the present instance, and after a thorough examination the Government Timber Price Committee advised me that the increases were fair and reasonable. “When submitting the increased prices for approval the sawmillers stated that the present unbalanced demand necessitated the incidence of the price increase being placed on the grades in active demand. If'the incidence of the demand on various grades was corrected to conform more closely to production the sawmillers would, be prepared to review prices immediately and withdraw the list with a view to modifying the large differentials now created by the present unbalanced demand and effect some reduction in average sales value.”